Watching Higher Education/Observando a Educação Superior

(Book) Evolution

Are there any similarities between Taleb and Diamond, the authors from the books cited below? I would risk to say that I see the same sort of generic approach, or strategy, if I may use the word. Why? Let’s see.

I’ve been reading the Taleb “trilogy” (Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan and, now, Antifragile), that started as a Twitter recommendation for the latest book. I’ve been doing it almost non stop for a few weeks. Yesterday, I just got another recommendation from Twitter for the latest Diamond book. So, I got a Kindle version and I could not resist to read the prologue. I must mention that I read Guns, Germs and Steel some years ago, and Collapse more recently.
What I got from Antifragile (I’m approaching one third of the book) and from the latest Diamond’s Prologue (in line with some recollection from the former books) is the same generic idea: the authors start from partial views of the world (based on their own fields) , and “grow/evolve” into a progressively more unified vision, a sort of grand theory that tries to embrace more and more of our modern way of life. There is some kind of “mission” spirit in both, if I may say so.
I will keep reading in order to see if this fleeting impression is real or just a thing of the moment.

And, as a final note, I’m impressed with the book recommendations I get from Twitter. Maybe, I’m just lucky to follow interesting people, namely Pedro (@PCMagalhaes). But Twitter is certainly becoming more and more important for the “bookish” part of my PLE, ;-).